The long-standing Immunology Training Program at The Scripps Research Institute provides advanced research training for 8 Postdoctoral Fellows in areas relevant to modern immunology. The 31 designated Mentors, the remaining faculty of the 45 member Department of Immunology and Microbial Science, the Faculty of Scripps Research and the interactions with the La Jolla immunology community provide a rich, challenging and highly interactive environment for trainees. The goals of this Immunology Training grant remain unchanged: to recruit and train the best candidates from a diverse applicant pool to become independent scientists with promising careers in basic and applied immunology. We will continue the tradition of training highly productive, independent, creative scientists who will make substantial contributions to the field of immunology and related disciplines. Underrepresented minority candidates and both Ph.D. and M.D. candidates are encouraged to apply. Trainees receive training in the ethics of research, communication skills, grant preparation, and proper use of human subjects and animals in their research. The 31 designated Mentors have a distinguished record of training postdoctoral fellows and have research interests that include autoimmunity, innate immunity and inflammation, lymphocyte biology, signal transduction, structural immunology, transplantation, and viral immunology.